Practice Makes Perfect
by Green Kneesocks
Summary: If Mob wants to practice then who is Reigen to deny her? Fem!Mob ReigenXMob


She was staring at him again. He pretended not to notice. He pretended not to notice a lot of things about her. The way her eyes would linger on him when she thought that he wasn't looking. The little smiles she'd get when he put an arm around her shoulders. The way she said his name with a stutter and a blush. He played dumb to all of this.

He looked up. She looked back down at her manga quickly. She was so cute when she was flustered.

Something was on her mind, though. He could always tell. She was thinking really hard about something and she'd probably ask him for some more life advice, which he would gladly dispense, and then they'd go out for takoyaki or ramen or something. Then he'd walk her home, arm over her shoulders, and she'd get so, delightfully, flushed and give him a quick 'Goodnight Master Reigen' before she rushed into her house without looking back. She'd look back when she got inside. She'd look back at him from behind a living room curtain as he walked away. Slowly. For her benefit.

She was so lovesick, it was so adorable.

Well, not entirely adorable. She was becoming a bit too old for it to be adorable. Older than she was when they met, much older. She wasn't that same little eleven year old that walked through his door all those years ago. He let his eyes linger on her. Not eleven anymore at all.

The swell of her breasts against her school shirt. The curve of her waist. Her thighs, what little flesh could be seen as she sat down. Yes, she was not elven anymore at all. Reigen hadn't wanted her then. He hadn't wanted her until recently.

At first he had hated himself for noticing her. For imaging her when he was all alone in the night and it got far too lonely, hot, and unbearable. For remembering some little inconsequential movement she made, something that pulled her shirt tight across her chest. Some way she moved her legs exposing so little and so much pale, creamy thigh. He hated himself for noticing the things about her that he knew were wrong to even begin to even think about noticing.

He hated himself, he hated himself for a while, and then he didn't. He started to notice the looks she gave him. The way her face would flush for seemingly no reason. The way she'd sit just a little too close to him when they took the train or the bus. The way she'd just stare at him sometimes. Then the less than innocent way she'd stare at him after he got done giving a massage. He started leaving his tie loosened and his top buttons undone just to see her squirm.

And she squirm she did. After he finished giving a massage, his tie loosened, his shirt unbuttoned, sweat collected on his forehead. She'd stare. He could feel her staring. He could feel her eyes on him and he could see her, out the corner of his eye, fidgeting. The fidgeting started about a year ago. She was sitting in her chair and rocking back and forth a little, stopping whenever she noticed him watching her. Her hands would be clasped together. Her teeth would bite her lower lip. Her hair would start to float a little, eventually, and he'd excuse himself to go outside and smoke just so that she could stop torturing herself. He'd come back and she'd be flushed and unable to meet his eye.

Like now.

She was flushed now. She had one of her mangas in her hands but it didn't look like she was reading it. Her legs were crossed, one thigh over another. She was bouncing a little. She was looking towards him now, which was odd. He looked back at her.

"Something on your mind, Mob?" asked Reigen leaning back in his chair. It rolled a little too far back but he felt her catch him with her powers.

"No! I mean…" said Mob easing him back into a less dangerous sitting position. She wrung her hands together. She was looking down at her desk, the manga she was reading before now closed and on her desk. Reigen read the title. Weekly Shoujo. Mob and shoujo. Love and relationships and heartbreak and heartache.

"Bad day?" asked Reigen. She shook her head. He could see the wheels in her head turning. Mob wasn't unexpressive, you just had to know how to read her.

"No…I just…" said Mob, her book now beginning to float off of her desk. Not scared, nervous.

"Something happen at school?" asked Reigen. That was where most of her teenage dilemmas occurred after all. You could not pay him to go back to being fourteen.

"Kind of…" said Mob

"Want to talk about it?" asked Reigen

"…ok…" said Mob. There was some silence.

"So…" said Reigen. She tensed for a moment.

"Um…." Said Mob. More small things around the office began to float.

"Who died?" asked Reigen with some mirth. She, of course, couldn't read tones. Adorable. Simply adorable.

"Nobody! Master Reigen, nobody died." Said Mob, her braids floating now. Reigen resisted the urge to walk over and push them down. Any excuse to touch her hair, really. It was just so soft.

"Sorry. You were just carrying on like somebody was either dead or dying." Said Reigen

"It's nothing like that it's just…um…my friend Tome she kissed someone and…" said Mob

"You're jealous?" asked Reigen with a drawl. She could be pretty jealous sometimes. Hell, she had joined the exercise club of hers because she was jealous of the popular girls in her class.

"No…yes…maybe…" said Mob

"Well that's normal. Don't worry Mob, your time will come." Said Reigen reassuring her as best as he could.

"That the…thing…" said Mob. He cocked an eyebrow. Mob usually just said whatever it was she wanted to say. She was choosing her words? Hmm….

"Don't get so down on yourself. You're a great girl and someone's going to want to kiss you. Just wait." Said Reigen. She looked at him and then looked away. She was beet red now. From her collar to the tips of her ears.

"But I don't want to….wait…" said Mob. Reigen raised an eyebrow. He knew what she was getting at. Well she had learned something from him after all.

"You've got your eye on someone?" asked Reigen. She squeaked and jumped in her chair. No, her chair rose off the ground with her in it. Yup. BINGO.

"….yes…" said Mob softly.

"Who's the lucky guy?" asked Reigen as if he didn't already know. So she was making her move. He'd indulge her, of course he would. He had such a soft spot for her…one of these days she was going to get him hung.

"….it's a secret." Said Mob

"Even from me?" asked Reigen

"…yes…" said Mob

"Well whoever he is I'm sure he'll be happy to kiss you." Said Reigen

"….I don't think he will." Said Mob

"Then he's a moron." Said Reigen with a dismissive wave of his hand. Mob just needed to see herself the way that he saw her. Seriously, she really was a great girl. Not just physically. She was just so…good. Loyal. Strong. She had saved him on more than one occasion and he did care for her. That was why he had never proposed anything like she was proposing right now, and she was proposing something. He had always told himself that he couldn't take advantage of her like that, that even if she wanted him he'd just end up scaring her away. She was young and skittish about this. What he wanted and what she wanted were two different worlds of want. Of course that didn't mean that he couldn't give her what she wanted if she asked him…and she was asking.

"I just….I don't know…" said Mob

"How to?" asked Reigen

"Yes…I don't know how…" said Mob

"Well the only way to learn is to practice." Said Reigen

"I know. My friend said that she asked someone to practice with her and I was just thinking…" said Mob. Reigen resisted the urge to shake his head. She had him, she didn't need to keep this whole thing up.

"Thinking of asking someone to practice to with you?" asked Reigen. Mob nodded.

"I…want to…" said Mob

"Then just ask." Said Reigen

"But what if he says no?" asked Mob

"Then he says no, but he won't." said Reigen

"How do you know?" asked Mob

"I don't know why he would possibly say no to you." Said Reigen. Come on, Mob, you may be awkward but you're also incredibly adorable. Pretty too, growing into it. Growing into her looks. Even if she had bangs like her mother had just plopped a bowl on her head and went to town.

"He might not like me….back." Said Mob

"You don't know unless you ask." Said Reigen

"But what if he says no? Then he wouldn't want to be my friend anymore." Said Mob

"You don't know that. You miss every shot you don't take. Just ask the guy." Said Reigen

"…I can't…" said Mob

"Mob, come here." Said Reigen motioning to the couch. Mob got up and sat next to him.

"Closer." Said Reigen. Mob, adorable as she was, flushed but scooted close enough so her knees knocked against his.

"Master…." Said Mob

"Just ask, Mob. You can just ask me." Said Reigen. He reached over and took her hand. He took a moment to appreciate the contact between them. Her hand was really soft, small too. He dragged the pad of his thumb over the top of her hand. She shuddered a little, just a little. It was adorable.

"How did you know?" asked Mob softly

"Because I know you, Mob. I know you and I can read the atmosphere. If you wanted me to show you how to kiss then you could have just asked me. I'm here for you, Mob, ok?" said Reigen, her hand still in his.

"You…you would kiss me?" asked Mob

"If you asked. If you really want to…to practice." Said Reigen. Practice was a good word. That gave her an out, an excuse for them to never speak of this again if that was what she wanted. She was squirming again, now, and he feared for a moment that maybe he had gone too far for her. Maybe she wanted her fantasies to stay just that, fantasies.

"Um…just for practice?" asked Mob

"Just for practice." Said Reigen

"And you'll still like me afterwards…it won't be weird?" asked Mob

"No. Not at all." Said Reigen. She was shifting from foot to foot now. Her hair was standing up, his too. He could feel her powers, her nervousness. She looks like she wants to say something but she just cannot get the words out. It's so adorable, so very adorable, seeing her this worked up. He could watch her all day but he doubts that she can last that long. She's losing her nerve, he can tell, and once her resolves leaves then the moment will follow it and Reigen can't have that.

So he decides to put her out of her misery.

One hand to the back of her head, the other around her waist. He pulls her close, pulls her down to him. She's in his lap, now, and falls there with a squeak. She's about to say something, what she's about to say he does not know, but she never gets a chance to finish uttering even the first syllable. It dies as it passes her lips. It dies as it hits his.

For a moment she does not move.

He hears a potted plant hit the ground and shatter. He feels himself rising a little bit off of his chair. She's doing that. She isn't meaning to but she is. He can feel a sort of energy cracking around her, under the palms of his hands where he's holding her. She's still fidgeting, still squirming, and still full of that restless sort of nervousness.

But her lips are still.

Which makes sense. This is, undoubtedly, her first kiss. Of course she would have no idea what to do. The only way she would learn, of course, would be to practice. He runs his fingers through her hair, slowly, and this gets him a gasp. A small gasp, a small opening, but he takes it. He takes this moment to deepen, not to plunge, but to deepen just a bit. Just enough that he doesn't scare her off. That's the worst thing that he could do now.

This is perfect.

Her hand, small and shaky, finds the fabric of his coat. The other one finds his shoulder. She's moving now, matching his rhythm as best as she can, and the only word that Reigen had think that would even begin to encapsulate this is endearing. She is so endearing in the way, the tentative way, that she parts her lips to match his. Her tongue stays where it belongs, of course, because she is nowhere near ready for that. As nice as it would be he does not rush her. This has to be something for her, something good for her, something that she can carry with her for her entire life.

She's so perfect.

His hand, the one around her waist, travels lower. Down past the space where her hips flare out from her waist, down and across her school skirt ironed and starched to perfection, and then resting softly on her knee, on the pale strip of flesh where her socks end and her skirt, the hem of it, does not reach.

She breaks apart from him.

He feels light, so light, without her there. Then he crashes down to the ground. A great many things crash down to the ground. She stands there, her face flushed, her lips kiss bruised, a sheen of sweat across her forehead, and totally still. No more squirming. For a moment she just stands there and he fears that he's ruined everything. Her expression is both nothing and everything. She looks at him like he is the summit of her desires and the pit of her fears.

"Mob…talk to me. How do you feel right now?" he asks. Gently, very gently, because the last thing he wants to do is scare her off.

"I…I'm…I don't know. I feel really…good…but I think…I don't think that I need to practice anymore." Said Mob. She couldn't meet his eyes. She was wringing her hands again. She was wringing her hands and shifting her weight from foot to foot. Back to this, the nervous energy. He stood up and took her hand in his. He needed to make sure that she was ok.

"You're right Mob, too much of a good thing and all that." Said Reigen. He smiled at her, his most reassuring smile. She smiled back up at him, her eyes met his, then she looked away. Her cheeks were still flushed red.

"I…it was good?" asked Mob

"It was perfect." Said Reigen. He was, for once, not lying. She was artless and nervous but all of that was just so…her. So perfect. She was perfect. He gave her hand a squeeze, she squeezed his right back. Yes, this was good. This was great. She was fine, better than fine, and so was he. Yes, there was only one thing that could make this night even better.

"So, ramen or takoyaki tonight?"


End file.
